solwezi farmers association

As a woman in leadership position leading a progressive agricultural organisation iam  applying  for this award in order to inspire other women. Despite the majority of women in the rural areas being heavily involved in agriculture they are disproportionately represented in leadership positions for large scale agriculture operations.This has led them taking a back stage in decision making on how to use the returns from the farming activities.

Women being the center  of all agricultural related activities individual empowerment would greatly  add to the voice of the few women folk who are strangling to reach the top. As a women im better placed to spear head the farming activities as this will help to shape the calibre of my leadership qualities.

I  would like to take up a project in value addition of crops that are grown with our farmers as this helps to create local employment and maximise profits from the sale of finished products . This  will ensure an increase in income and hence improvement in the standard of living as products whose value has been improved fetch a higher market price. The elevate prize will be key to unlocking my  potential in leadership and my  general farming

I have known how not to have and to have and my vision is to lead a very big and  well systematically  organised institution which has regards for women, youths and men.Since my repatriation from the nursing job,i  looked after vulnerable street kids and mobilised and worked with women who are former prostitutes. I also worked for International catholic child bearau an organisation which was looking at traumatised children, women and men after the mozambican war.  I was  nominated for an award by Red Cross  for best women in charity works and Solwezi chamber of  i was also awarded  with a certificate of recognition in women leadership as a contribution to the community at large.

Our organisation is non governmental run by the farmers themselves and its leaders  are elected democratically into office after every 2 years. Each leader can be voted into leadership for 2 terms only and can be voted back after a year of being out of office.

The mandate of the  association is to speak on behalf of the small holder farmers within  Solwezi district. The association lobs and networks with other organisation both public and private by way of negotiating for subsidized inputs and services.

The main problem the organisation is faced with is the high level of poverty among the farming fraternity despite a few being engaged in agricultural activities. This problem has mainly been due to low levels of adaptation to modern farming methods which has been highly attributed to high cost of capital inputs like tractors, disc harrow, planters, boom sprayer, animal drought power, seed , chemicals and fertilizers. Not forgetting the lack of efficient ways of conducting soil analysis so that fertiliser application is specific according to crop requirement. Lack of appropriate technology.

The above  noted problem has  been tackled by way of  engaging some private and public organisation to provide the equipment and the animals  for use  as drought power.These methodologies have been tried but the challenge has been accessing affordable finance to acquire the necessary equipment  Training in the use of appropriate technology in food processing and preservation. The growing of low input crops which are used as cash crops eg soyabeans, sweet potatoes, cassava etc

Our work is innovative because we provide new solutions to old problems by engaging those most affected. It is farmers that best understand the challenges that farmers face. By providing a platform for information exchange and contribute to national policy, we are able to provide solutions at both a micro level as well as contribute to overall national solutions.

As an association, we are doing new methods such as 

1. the out grower schemes. 

2. training the farmers in integrated farming

3. market linkages for farmers' produce

4. we do aggregation and would love to strengthen the cause, so that we can bargain for better prices for the farmers' produce

5. we do not work in isolation but rather collaborate with government institutions and other sector

6. we encourage out farmers to take up farming as a business and source of livelihood, especially the women and the youths out of employment.

7. we are working with research institutes in soil testing and advising on the best crop that can do better in some areas and we are a link when research is being done.

The association impacts humanity positively at the most basic levels. We directly deal with poverty alleviation by supporting small scale farmers increase agribusiness capacities and directly address and provide solutions to some of the global challenges such as hunger, climate change, and sustainability.

The steps we are taking are:

1. Awareness

2. Mobilisation

3. Training

4. Activity implementation

5.Monitoring and evaluation

The methodology is creating and impact because it is bottom up and participatory involving the grass root members.